The Best of 'Wood Art" #1: "Upcoming Awards Event" --by RusticWoodArt

Upcoming Awards Event“Twice a year, LumberJocks.com hosts a Woodworking Awards Event. Watch for more details about how to participate and what the Awards Recipients will receive in honor of their woodworking abilities.”

Categories:
Not Just Any Box – There are boxes and then there are “boxes”. Whether are you are a beginning woodworker or a skilled craftsman a box can provide a challenge to bring your woodworking skills to a new level by mixing technique with artistry. It’s time to “step out of the box” and create “not just any box”. Entries for this category are to be boxes created as a gift and the dimensions (height, width, depth) are not to exceed 18 inches / 45.72 centimeters.Join the fun, challenge your abilities, and start building that special gift box today.

The Multi-Purposed 2×4 – One 2×4; One Project. Put your creativity and technical skills to the test by building a project from a single, eight foot long, 2×4. You can secure the pieces with glue, dowels, screws – whatever your heart desires; you can decorate it with paint, stain, or some other medium; you can add mechanical do-dads. What you can’t do is add any other building material (wood, plexiglass, sheet metal, etc.) to it. One 2×4; One Project.

So I’m wondering….what if….and how to define….

How is a 2’‘x4’’ defined for this category of ”The Multi-Purposed 2×4”, is this dimensioned lumber of 1-1/2’’ x 3-1/2’’ or are we talking about real wood….real dimensions of 2’’ x 4’’ ? One may wonder why I’m asking but then seldom do I use already boxed and store bought lumber for ‘wood art’.

So do I need to cut that log into lengthwise by going 2’’ x 4’’ or 1-1/2’’ x 3-1/2’’ and 8’ long?

And yes, many more questions and images to follow hereafter….actually from our discussion back in the summer I figured these two categories would be coming up….so I’ve all-ready been tossing images of what shall be, around within my head….

23 comments so far

Frank: I wasn’t going to ask. 2 X 4 tells me a 2 X 4 if that is what I use, Nothing wider than 4” or thicker than 2” unless glued up which is acceptable. And I would agree that equivalent wood would be acceptable, meaning 2 4’ pieces of so. But I assume that it should be all the same species of wood. I don’t think a 2” X 8” 4’ long is equilivant. That it would need to be (2) – 2X4” 4’ long glued together to make your own 2X8. The original wood must be no bigger than 2 X 4 but could be made of equivalent wood to equal 8’ long. (4) 2’ long pieces.

This is my opinion.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware soon moving to Virginia karsonwm@gmail.com †

I think the challenge is to create something extraordinary out of something extremely ordinary. When they say 2×4, don’t read into it too much. They are talking about a common Douglass Fir stud. That’s what makes it interesting.

I guess I’m too much of a newbie to woodworking. For me, if someone said to me that they had/needed a 2×4, I would picture a long piece of wood (usually used as a stud) that is approximately 2” x 4”. If I went to a store and asked for a 2×4 they would bring me a 2×4… I’ve learned that a 2×4 isn’t really that measurement .. but it’s still called a 2×4. So if you are cutting your own, I guess you get to decide how exact you want to be to that 2×4 size. Make it 6” wide and we’ll know!!!

When this idea was presented last spring, the question raised was how long is the piece of wood and so 8’ was selected for this challenge.

Karson, do you still have that link to the ideas that the woodworking club came up with?

Hello to all, who have responded here and also to all who are watching….

Hi Karson; ....sometimes I don’t want to ask, but then there all-ways arises the need for clarification….LOL

And I’m with you on reading into the 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ is just what it says. And since the wood is going to be cut, 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ is up to the designer and their project….just the need to understand that when all the inch’s of ‘board space’ are tallied up, one may not exceed that 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’. Hence their needs to be a starting point, and that starting point is a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’, and then as you mentioned, comes:

Note: when we are talking a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’, each can go with that or with the ‘boxed store’ bought versions, and remember you will loose approximately 1/2’’ of wood over the 8’ run with the boxed store bought version….hmmm? ( just thinking out loud to my-self here )

Also I guess I am not seeing in those rules above, any note about ‘what species’ the wood has to be? Whether one wants to use softwood or hardwood is all fair game, since only size, width and length are noted in the rules. Good luck Karson in the contest!!!

Hello Blake; I’m glad to see you here speaking up and voicing your opinion, welcome. Not sure if you’ve read the debates we caried on with over the course of the last contest….mostly in the ‘wood joinery’ category, but it might serve you well to read through those and get an understanding of how we take these contests seriously here as LumberJocks. The rules are set forth and then clarified so folks don’t have to ‘read too much or too little into them. Towards the end of the ‘wood joinery’ contest there were folks who were having to withdraw and some who could not enter because they had not read the rules and then came up short. The wood is not specified in the contest rules….therefore one could use Douglass Fir stud’s or ‘whatever wood choice they as the designer of their wood project so desire to use. And again let me just add that when you say; ”don’t read into it too much”, I would caution you to make sure you are understanding what you reading. —-Good luck in the contest Blake!!!I am also enclosing the links for those discussions:

Hello Jeff; welcome and glad to see you adding comments! Good luck in the contest!

Hi Dan; Glad your asking and the way I see it, your in the fine to use here, with that 8/4×4’’ x 8’ in the rough. Honduran Maghoany….Wow, now i imagine there’s no use in trying to pick your brain on what your going to do with that….LOL I’ve got some White Oak in the rough that I’ve been thinking about….Good luck!!!

Note: I think one may also assume that if you had 8/4×8’ in the rough or 1-1/2’’ x 8’ at whatever width, then it is up to the designer him//her-self to rip the board into a 4’’ or 3-1/2’’ width. The point being made here is that whatever comes latter….the starting of the project needs to come from a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ long board of whatever wood species one desires to use. ”Put your creativity and technical skills to the test by building a project from a single, eight foot long, 2×4.” and again I might add that according to my reading of those rules set forth above….I see no-place where ‘species of wood’ is mentioned....but then again that’s my opinion.

Whether we have an oficial forum page on this subject concerning the upcoming contest, I will continue to use this blog story as a sorts of posting my thoughts and progress in the up-coming contest….and if there are more questions well, ask away…..

Hi Debbie; Around my neck of the woods I go to a sawmill usually, and if I asked them for a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ they would want to know what species of wood I wanted.

If I am using a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ or 1-1/2’’ x 3-1/2’’ x 8’, this will make a big difference if I am then going to cut by crosscut or rip into various dimensions, so as to build a piece of furniture. With a person thinking of all possibilities here, I sure don’t want to loose any wood….even a 1/2’’, since ‘one’ or ‘I’ may also want to do some lamenting or bending of the wood.

Also when you say “Make it 6” wide and we’ll know!!!”, well thats the point I’m getting at here. Some of us may be taking a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ and slicing into thinner slivers of wood, so unless the groundwork is established as to a 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’ how would any know, when maybe there will be no-wood wider then 1’’ or 1/2’’ in the finished project, I mean that’s why I call furniture ‘wood art’? The Multi-Purposed 2×4 is only where the wood project starts, what comes next is open to the designer….

before I make a cut I’ll take a photo of the lumber with a scale so there will be no question. thinking of designing it with sketchup. will post my design here when I think something up !it will be fun to figure the volume of the project and project it into a finished item minus the width the saw blade.

I have not noticed any deadline….............is that still-to-be descided ?

The category is for a 2×4… if you choose to cut it yourself. Go for it… if you choose to purchase it… go for it… If cutting it yourself gives you a little extra wood to play with and you need that extra fraction of an inch of wood width, then lucky you… what wood are you going to use? Up to you… Just keep it within the general dimensions of an 8’ long piece of 2×4. As you said, Frank, if you went to your local mill and asked for a 2×4, they’d know what you wanted.

As always LumberJocks are on their honour to build and enter something using the guidelines.

as for deadlines: we just wanted to give you a heads up before the official announcement was posted.

Hello to all….;—-this discussion is getting good, as brains start heating up and popping out ideas….no-popped corn here, but poppin’ ideas about makin’ wood chips and bigger!

Hello Dan; yes, and thanks for posting those ideas. Much of what your saying is as I’ve been thinking also concerning: 1.) ”before I make a cut I’ll take a photo of the lumber with a scale so there will be no question”,—-and—-2.) ”it will be fun to figure the volume of the project and project it into a finished item minus the width the saw blade”.

As to the ”I have not noticed any deadline……..........is that still-to-be decided ?” question, well I’m not sure about where thats at either….? I’m just getting started on this now from the ‘rules’ posted above and since I have also thought of cutting the 2×4 from a log myself, I have to allow some time for drying, even though I would be using a log that has been sitting for year or two. I also have some two hundred year old Chestnut in the form of beams that I could re-saw into a 2×4 and then some White Oak, Spruce and Hemlock.

I’m thinking of doing some thin slicing and bending for some of the project….so I will also do some laminating of the wood. Sliced and thin, will give one some nice color effects when the wood is multi-colored with stains, one just needs to keep pressure on the wood as the stains dry out, sometimes in this process it’s better to go with artist oils and mix your own colors.

I also see where you mentioned, ”can the 2×4×8 be used to make then one item”? And in my opinion the answer is there in the rules above….”One 2×4; One Project” But now comes the individual designer and so he//her interprets this as….hmmm, One Project okay I can do that and here’s how! I’ll use 200 carved army men and place them in and on a battlefield of an re-enactment of a famous Revolutionary War Scene. Now if all that can be done with one 2×4 of wood and if one where to call the whole ”Revolutionary War Scene”....One Project, then in my opinion one has full-filled the requirement set forth in the rules. The 200 hand carved soldiers are not separate projects, but complete the one project of a famous Revolutionary Battle Scene. Oh well that’s just how my mind works in forming opinions and yes, thats just my opinion!

Hello Miles; Good to see you commenting and thanks for your thought out words. My technical and thinking mind is all-ways pushing the bubble of woodworking thought and yes, I sometimes get caught up into the mindset of what I have been taught. I was trained and taught in wood, that when I write wood dimensions down….I should all-ways note by such as 8’’ x 8’’ x 8’—-which will make (2) 4’’ x 8’’ x 8’—-which will make (4) 4’’ x 4’’ x 8’—-which will make (8) 2’’ x 4’’ x 8’....and yes I’m doing this real simple so please forgive my lack of not taking into account of ‘saw kerf’. This is the old ways of wood working that I was taught and is still the way I teach proper notation of wood dimensions, since this takes all the guessing out and leaves one with an understanding of what one is getting.

What I’m driving at here is where you say; ”I consider”, this is what I was taught to ‘not do with wood’ and it’s dimensions….the stories I could tell of what goes wrong on a project because two carpenters looked at the same diagram and they both considered different dimensions.

....as far as milling goes, all the wood is milled in some form or another….but again, just my opinion….

Thanks again for the questions, observations, opinions and lets keep this thing going….

Oh I read it right—they didn’t ask about size.. they asked about species of wood… and the challenge category doesn’t mention wood species… That was my point—as soon as someone says ‘2×4’ we all have a vision in our heads… Now, we want to turn that vision into something else. I can see it now – an LJ picking up a 2×4 and saying “WOW. This is really cool.” Strangers give them a weird look and the LJ responds: it’s a beautiful bird cage. or – it’s a war enactment… ” Strangers give them an ever weirder look and run in the opposite direction as fast as they can! haha

I think I can see the smoke from here, Frank, as your brain starts creating the vision for your project. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with. I might just end up with a toothpick hahah.